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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Monday, November 7, 2011

A few weeks ago, I was reading the June/July issue of Donna Hay Magazine which worked out perfectly. Since it's an Australian magazine, and our seasons are opposite, it's fine that the issues take longer to arrive here and June and July were long gone. By the time I read it, our weather had cooled off some, and I was ready to think about more wintery dishes. There were lots of lovely things made with root vegetables in one story, and another story about a dinner party around a roaring fire that ended with chocolate whisky truffles. I'll get back to those soon enough, but it was the rice puddings that I had to try first. That's such a basic, comfort food kind of dish, and why I'd never made it I don't know. What made me finally want to do it was the fact that there wasn't just one flavor presented in the story. There were eight, yes eight, versions from which to choose. And, I got a little excited when one of the eight was rhubarb and creme fraiche because I had cooked some extra rhubarb and stored it in the freezer earlier in the year. So, that one was for sure, and really, I wanted to try all of the other seven, but I narrowed it down to three. Once the basic rice pudding recipe was made, altering it or adding different toppings was easy enough. I scooped the plain pudding into ramekins, topped some with stewed rhubarb and creme fraiche, others with burnt caramel, and the remaining pudding was flavored with orange zest and topped with melted chocolate.

For the basic rice pudding, all that's required is combining arborio rice, whole milk, sugar, and the seeds and pod of one vanilla bean in a saucepan and bringing it to a boil. The heat was reduced, the pan was covered, and the rice simmered while being stirred occasionally for about 30 minutes. Since I'd already cooked some rhubarb and had it in the freezer, I just let it come to room temperature and spooned it over some rice pudding in ramekins. That was topped with creme fraiche. For both the burnt caramel and chocolate orange versions, some cream was to be added to the basic rice pudding first. Then, sugar was melted in a small saucepan, and the pan was swirled until the sugar became an amber caramel. It was drizzled over the rice pudding just before serving. Last, some orange zest was stirred into the remaining rice pudding, and dark chocolate was melted to top it.

The rhubarb was fruity and tangy with the vanilla rice pudding, but a spoonful of any fruit preserves would be great too. The orange zest paired well with the swirl of chocolate which was a good contrast to the vanilla pudding. Trying all three was a lot of fun and rice pudding could be gussied in many, many ways, but my favorite of all was the burnt caramel topping. It went perfectly with the simple, basic, vanilla rice pudding which is pretty delicious even left plain.

Thank you for sharing this with us! You made the most beautiful and delicious looking rice puddings! I haven't tried any of these versions but am so curious about the burnt caramel. Just the thought of it is making me hungry!

My father's favorite. I must have made a ton of it when he was with us! He liked maple syrup on his....actually, he liked maple syrup on everything!Nothing is more comforting than a rice pudding, Lisa. I always think it's fun to read Donna Hay as we're in the wrong seasons all the time! She's on our list of Game Changers...Love the idea, BTW, of the pumpkin muffins used in savory form. Hmmm. Think I better try that.

What a great idea of garnishing rice pudding...not only add color but flavors.Hope you are having a nice week and thanks for this great idea Lisa :-)By the way, I got the cookbook and already planning to follow some of the recipes...will let you know ;-) Thanks again!

I didn't grow up eating rice pudding and for some reason it has never sounded terribly appealing to me; however, your lovely pics and delicious sounding descriptions just might make me change my mind. I'm intrigued by the chocolate and orange zest variety. Sounds terrific!

We cook the rice pudding with broken basmati rice. then we cook and cook to get the mushy texture. After looking at your rice pudding I will try with arbiro rice. Liked your variations for the pudding.

These pictures are gorgeous, Lisa! Using ramekins made for a lovely presentation. I love rice pudding and have many fond memories of enjoying it during my childhood, especially Greek style (aka Rizogalo). With the recent cold front here in Austin, this is definitely going to be made soon. Yes to comfort food. :)